PT Client Testimonial - Rory

With my client base continuing to expand and my experience constantly growing, I present to you one of my most hard-working clients, Rory. Rory is 14 years old and came to me with the goal of becoming fitter and more effective at sports. Together we've created a fun and enjoyable training regime that not only helps Rory increase sports performance, but also puts him on the right path to a healthy and fun lifestyle.

"I have had around 16 sessions with Igor and honestly it really has made a difference. For a start my physical performance in sports has improved and this has actually been noticed by others IE: P.E. teachers and rugby coaches. Also I have felt fitter in myself, I feel I can run for longer and I have seen my strength increase.Every session I have learnt something new and in the exercises I have done before I can really see improvement such as when we do weights, the weight has got heavier and I have still been able to do it, which is really amazing to see.All in all Igor has helped me a lot already and changed my mind about what I should be eating and how good I really am at some things. The change from a few months ago where I dreaded doing exercise except from rugby to now being happy going to the gym is amazing and also helps build my confidence. Im having a good time and enjoy going to the gym with Igor!"

Rory is a fantastic example of someone starting early and engaging with health and fitness to build a better and more efficient version of himself. It's never, ever too early or too late to start -- so get in touch and let's see if I can help you with my regimes, food plans and lifestyle advice.

Igor.

1st PT Client Testimonial - Ian

After 12 very successful sessions I have finally completed what would be considered my first ever personal training schedule for Ian Martin! Ian trusted an untested product, put his faith in me and together we attained everything he wanted and more. Here's what Ian had to say ...

"Igor, 
Just a very quick note to say a big "thank you" for all your time, friendship, guidance and above all your patience over the past 12 sessions. I have been a member of the gym for several years now but in the past have just "played" at without really knowing what I was doing & certainly without a goal. 
Over the past few months, with your help, I have improved my strength & stamina to an unprecedented level - thanks. I never believed I could run a full mile or lift 75 kilograms on the chest press machine.
Your method of working, building from a (in my case a very) low level & increasing has worked wonders - & it shows.
I would have no hesitation in recommending you to anyone else!
Best of luck for the future, see you when I get back from China.
Kind regards & again many thanks.
Ian Martin. "

If you're looking to get stuck into health and fitness this summer period then don't hesitate and get in touch. I offer a variety of services that cater to all different fitness levels and goals -- let's do healthy stuff!

Igor.

Olympic Workout - LiftBigEatBig

Hello! God it’s taken a pretty long time to smash out this second blog post but finally I made it. On the bright side I’m spending a lot of time training and that’s pretty much my reason why I haven’t had time to write anything.

The past couple of months or so I discovered this awesome new blog called LiftBigEatBig and began trying out their Olympic Lifting programme that tackled the following lifts: Snatch, Snatch Balance, Clean & Jerk, Front Squat, Back Squat, Deadlift, Push Press and any hanging / power variations of the Olympic lifts. So in essence it was myofibrillar strength training and boy was it a lot of fun. To be honest I intended this only to be just an opportunity for me to experiment and learn the Snatch but I ended up continuing for some time with the routine.

The routine was split across 3 days of the week and looked something like this:

-Week 1-

Day 1

Snatch: 3x3 @ 70% 3x3 @ 75%

Back squat:  4x5 @ 75%

Push press behind neck: 3x5 @ 70%

Snatch pulls: 4x5 @ 110% (of snatch 1RM)

Pullups:  3x8

Day 2

Clean & Jerk: 3x3 @ 70% 3x3 @ 75%

Snatch balance:  4x3 @70% (of snatch 1RM)

Front squat: 4x5 @ 75%

Clean pulls:  5x5 @ 115%

50 situps

Day 3

Snatch pull + power snatch + snatch  4x3 @ 70% 3x3 @ 75%

Back squat: 3x8 @ 70%

Push press behind neck: 4x5 @ 75%

Snatch deadlift:  3x7 @ 100%

Unfortunately my back injury played up again … sigh. I’ve seen a few people about it now because I’m so frustrated and it seems my QL is tight and causing havoc in my lower body. I’m not flexible at all I get that and now I try and stretch as much as possible, but it’s infuriating that the pain just won’t go away. As a result, I decided to stop with the lower body exercises and moved back to hypertrophy training, which I will discuss in my next blog post.

In the mean time I just wanted to quickly talk about my experience with this routine and the importance of training for functionality. The routine above is clearly an advanced level program designed for people with good flexibility and power (it’s not your simple bicep curls and bench press). You won’t be getting ‘the pump’ doing 3x3 sets / reps but you will be neurologically exhausted and drained as your entire body succumbs to traumatic stress performing these lifts. These are the kind of lifts that will make you explosive, fast and powerful, traits that are required in physical sports like Rugby, American Football and Football. Long story short, if you’re bored of doing the same old nonsense at the gym, I strongly urge you to have look into Olympic lifting because I had so much fun with it and was it not for my poor little back, I would have absolutely continued down this path. 

Stay healthy, stay strong.

The Beginning .... Kind of

It really is about time that I started writing about health, fitness, lifting and eating – after all what else is there to do in life? I’m kidding obviously (or am I?) but really I think it’s important to have a place dedicated for myself about the fitness industry. So with that in mind I present to you Let’s Do Healthy Stuff. I was initially going to call it Lifting Stuff Loads, but I decided to encompass even the most boring forms of exercise, like cardio …

So what will you expect to find here if you on the off chance decide to read up regularly? I don’t claim to be in perfect physical condition like Ryan Reynolds or Mr. Pitt during Fight Club, but what I do know is that despite the countless amounts of pizza, chocolate, beer and unhealthy shit I consume I still keep myself in great shape. The point I’m making is this, people are so afraid that to become healthy they’ll have to go cold turkey and eat only broccoli and chicken for the rest of their lives while sleeping at the gym – that’s not the case. I want to demonstrate to you that it is possible to eat nice food, it is possible to drink, have a social life while at the same time being perfectly content with your figure.

This was me as a kid … the best photo ever may I add. I couldn’t have been older than 15 I think. 

Dick Shot O'Clock

Then as I started growing up people from my school will remember I wasn’t anything special at all in terms of athleticism. Going to University I discovered a shit tonne of booze, bad food but also martial arts. In fact I remember the first Christmas holiday I came back I was pasty, white and fatter than Father Christmas. I kickboxed for a whole year after getting my ass kicked in Malia (first night out, seriously can you believe that?!) after vowing that would never happen again. Fortunately for me the kickboxing school also had a pretty sweet gym and that was where I met my best friend, gym partner and my love for weight lifting. So after kickboxing for a year my body became like this …

It is possible to be lean and eat / drink bad food but you have to be reasonable.

Note this was during university and the horrific diet that entails. Ok sure my genetics may have helped me but by the same token I was partaking in 4 hours of kickboxing a week alongside weight training 5 times. That’s the kinda commitment the first burst takes. Now I’m training only 3 times a week but you need to get that metabolism kick-start in my opinion. So it does show that hard work especially at a younger age can counter act bad dieting ... at least for a while anyway.

So this is me currently, the goal is trying to be a wreck-house Russian and I’m not really there yet but damnit I’m trying. Who knows what I was doing in the pic, maybe a Big Show impression? Whatever, my best mate -- pictured left, LOVES this shot of me making an ass of myself so here it is. I've packed on size, strength and as a result, fat. But that's NOT a problem. People are so scared of fat and extra calories, embrace them. You wait till I link in this blog my man Strong Fong -- the guy is a serious animal and he's literally twice the size and weight he was like a year and a half ago. It's all about what your current goal and target is but it's always better to get bigger first before you start the cutting down process. I might just bulk forever if it means I can eat pizza all the time ... 

Biggest yawn known to man?

What am I doing now? Nursing off 3 months of bad holiday eating and recovering from a iliac crest misplacement. My back is shot to hell but hopefully once I recover I’ll be back to full fitness, ready to pack on Strength and begin a more rigid hypertrophy style of training.

So I hope you enjoyed reading this – I have so much I want to write down but it’ll turn into a damn book so I’m gonna unleash in another post soon. Stay up to date as I’m going to discuss to basics of training, my strength programme, the utmost importance surrounding diet (if I can’t do it at least I can help some of you more motivated people out there) and why technique, form and posture should rule all the exercises you perform in the gym. I don't want to make the gym complicated for those of you who are daunted by the mere word exercise, but I can't stress how damn important it is so get involved and have a good time.

Stay health, stay strong.

Igor.